Review Management Software Buyers Guide
It doesn’t matter if you sell a product, a service, or an idea; if it’s for sale in today’s world, potential buyers are almost always going to check out the reviews. Thanks to the rise of industry giants like Amazon, reviews have become an integral part of the seller-buyer relationship. But it’s not always easy to get buyers to leave reviews. It takes a specific effort, often requiring buyers to log in, navigate to the right page, and go through a multi-step process to leave a review.
However, businesses who struggle to collect, manage, and display great reviews for their products or services can make a big difference with a review management software or platform. These services are also sometimes called “reputation management”, and provide businesses with a way to connect to their buyers, in hopes of earning more reviews. By making it easier for their clients to leave reviews, these services almost always result in big improvements.
Negative Reviews
One of the big things you’ll need to look for is how services handle negative reviews. Some offer portals that take clients with negative reviews to a page that puts them in touch with your customer service, so that the issue can be addressed and hopefully resolved. Others shuttle negative reviews off to a contact page after they give a star rating, but before they type a detailed review; this allows the service to cut down on the number of negative reviews in the first place.
All review management software draws only on the 4-star and 5-star reviews when streaming reviews to the display widgets that are placed on your websites or social media profiles. This means that any potential buyer who visits your site will see the best opinions, but written by real customers who don’t sound like paid advertisers.
Compare Review Management Software
Contracts and Cancelling
If possible, you should always choose a service that offers a month-to-month service. This allows you to back out at any time should you find that the service just doesn’t work for you. But you also need to be sure that you know what happens to reviews if you back out; if the software provided its own review collection system, rather than shuttling customers to external review sites, you may need to download reviews before you cancel.
Automation
The best review management services, like ReviewInc or Shopper Approved, offer you plenty of automated services. Your widgets will always display the most recent good reviews, and your profiles are always kept up-to-date with the latest company information. This is important, because updating every account yourself could take weeks of work.
Visibility
Finally, you’ll want to make sure that the service places reviews where they will be most visible. Some services, like Shopper Approved, don’t collect reviews themselves; instead they offer a landing page where you can funnel buyers to the many different review sites out there. Others, like Grade.us, collect reviews, but then add those reviews to all the major websites like Google+, Yahoo, Yelp, Facebook, BBB, Amazon, and so on. The more third party websites you can add your reviews to, the more reputable your company appears.
There are many other features that you’ll need to consider, such as how easy the service is for your customers to use, what kind of tracking and analytics they provide, and if it integrates with other software. By using a review management software, you can see a major improvement in sales very quickly. Be sure to check out the free trials offered by most services, and compare their features till you find the best fit for your company.
